Category

suicide

On one of my seafront walks recently I noticed someone sitting by themselves on the beach, gazing out to sea – much like the person in the photo here.

Given my particular interest in suicide prevention I needed to make a judgement call as to whether this person seemed in distress and, if so, whether I would approach them. In this case they seemed just fine.

But it started me thinking – they were there alone, perhaps by choice, but maybe not.

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You might expect that the title of this campaign would appeal to me – and it does. So does the purpose.

Launched for World Mental Health Day, #IAMWHOLE is fronted by Jordan Stephens, the hip hop star from Brighton – one of the Rizzle Kicks duo – who lost someone to suicide and who’s had his own mental health issues, too. Continue reading “#IAMWHOLE”→

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“Dear Mum, I wasn’t meant for this planet. You did everything you could so please don’t panic. No one likes me so I might as well vanish….”

The opening line of a fictional suicide letter from a boy to his Mum, this is an extract from the keynote speech given last year in Thailand to 1,300 One Young World delegates by Hussain Manawer, a 24-year-old poet and activist from Ilford – which won him a trip into space in 2018.

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What does it mean to be a man in today’s society? The age-old ‘nature versus nurture’ debate rages on, as does to what extent we all can (or want to) overcome any of the predisposition or (pre-)programming that exists from either source. Some of what’s out there may be generalisation but, even then, I quite often find ‘nuggets’ that might hold true. Continue reading “Men and Masculinity”→